The thesis
Most venture builders run a high-cadence factory: 6 — 8 companies a year, thin support, optimise for the law of large numbers. We do the opposite. One to four companies a year, deep co-founding, sized to the lab's actual capacity. A studio that ships fewer companies but treats each one like the only one.
Our pattern: a domain operator with a thesis we believe, paired with a lab pod that builds the technical core. The operator runs the company. The lab is the technical co-founder for the first 18 months and a board observer thereafter.
What we bring to day one
First cheque
€250k — €2m on standard SAFE. Wired the day the company incorporates.
Founding squad
3 — 5 lab engineers seconded for 18 months. Some convert to permanent hires.
Research stack
Full access to the lab's code, datasets, eval harnesses, and internal models.
Operator network
Warm intros to design partners, follow-on investors, and adjacent-domain operators.
Back-office
Legal, finance, hiring, ops — handled by the lab for the first 12 months.
Patient board seat
One board observer from the lab. We don't churn boards. We don't push exits.
What we look for in an operator
The studio cohort skews one direction: people who've worked the domain for a decade and have spent the last year quietly going insane about the gap they want to close. We're picky about three things.
- Domain depth. Not a research postdoc with a paper. Someone who's seen the problem fail in production, multiple times, at scale.
- Operator instincts. You've shipped something. To customers. With a P&L. The default is to go fast and iterate, not to wait for the model.
- Comfort with the lab. You want a technical co-founder, not a contractor. You're willing to share equity for serious leverage.
From conversation to incorporation
// stage 01 · 4 weeks
- Three working sessions
- Thesis stress-test
- Mutual diligence
// stage 02 · 8 weeks
- Joint research sprint
- Cap table modelling
- Term-sheet drafted
// stage 03 · day 0
- Co. formed
- SAFE wired
- Squad seconded
Terms — without the dance
- VehicleYC post-money SAFE, no MFN games
- Check size€250k — €2m, sized to the 18-month plan
- Equity15 — 25% post-money on conversion
- Founder splitoperator-led; we are minority co-founders
- Vesting4 years, 1-year cliff, both sides
- Board2 founders + 1 lab observer; no investor seat at this stage
- Pro-ratafull pro-rata in the next two rounds
- Exit termsnone. we are patient.
The cohort
Six companies, four years, six different domains — marine robotics, soilless agriculture, smart power, industrial kitchens, cheminformatics, acoustic AI for defense. Read the case studies and decide whether this is the company you want yours to keep.